Is Marriott the worst points program or is it me?
 

Last year I transferred 35k chase points to MR so that we could spend a night at Atlantis, but that trip didn't happen. Now I have been trying to use the Marriott points before they expire but they are worthless. I just looked up a Marriott in Pompano beach. It is $153 per night but it cost 35k points. How is that even possible that is less then 1/2 cent per point. Where as if they were chase points I could get 3 times that. Man this just really irks me, and I wanted to know if others feel the same.

Marriott points are more valuable than that but I would have never transferred points from Chase to Marriott. Best to transfer them to airlines as miles are much more valuable.

You transferred Chase UR points to Marriott at 1:1?

Marriott points are worth somewhere around .7 cents each. Chase points are worth over 2 cents each.

Too low and too high.

Agreed.

Best use of Marriott points is generally a Travel Package. Especially to WN for a 2-year Companion Pass.

Yeah Marriott is pretty useless except for the travel package. It's going to be a sad day when they take over SPG. I hope this merger causes them to fail like AOL Time Warner.

It's worse than SPG, but not as bad as Hilton, IME.

I can easily find one very poor value for points in any program - ski resorts in the summer, Jersey shore in winter, etc. One data point hardly condemns an entire program.

Not totally useless. I recently used 45k Marriott points on a Cat 9 resort in Vegas ($370 cash price), 40k HHonors was going to get me into a $145 Embassy suite.....

It's a bit silly to say that the entire Marriott program is a horrible program because you're looking at a single property at a particular time . There are a variety of 35K properties that are lovely/high-end you could stay at instead. The fact that you have a problem w/ a single property does not make a program worthless worldwide.

Also the property that is $153 today may be significantly more at a different time.

Cheers.

Posting the (also not usual) counter-example here: Checked in for a five-night stay at a Cat. 9 property yesterday that is running at about $2800 for the five nights I am here (and in fact is sold out completely for some of the nights) - which means that my 180K points have a value of about 1.5 points for each of them...

While not a valid comparison the nearby Sheraton (not nearly as nice and well-located) is running at about $1600 for the same five nights and charges 40K points for these night, so comes to about 4ct per point - also a good value, yet lesser than the Marriott given the different earning-ratio Marriott vs. SPG is about 3,75 to 1, so that comes to approx. a 1.06 ct. per point ratio in Marriott points...

Greetings - Dirk

The same property in early February is $309 per night, so 1.27 cpp all in.

Prices vary with season, demand, etc., etc. Point redemptions don't. Bottom line - pay cash when point redemption values are poor, use points when values are good.

Also, "cents per point" isn't a direct comparison - SPG points will always have a higher "value" than MR points, but that's because you earn them much more slowly. If you do an in-depth analysis of free nights earned per dollar spent/night paid for, MR is actually a bit better (but subject to availability restrictions). Again, HH is worse than both.

This is what I found also, but I live in Quebec so SPG is a good deal here and Marriott hotels are overpriced points wise.

Also it depends how you are earning those points. I have 180k points through sign-on bonuses this past year. 80k for personal and 100k for business. Point value isn't so important when they are FREE!

Understand that while some loyalty programs offer points that can be redeemed at a fixed dollar value, Marriott Rewards is not like that. The effective value you receive with MR points depends on the cash rate of the hotel at the time you book relative to the points rate. A property's points rate is basically flat across the whole year while its cash rate can vary enormously with demand by season, midweek vs. weekend, special events, etc. So there will be cases where a 35k point hotel is a bad deal on points in the low season when you can pay $153 for the room while the same hotel is a great deal on points in the high season when rates are $300+. Savvy MR members hold their points for opportunities when cash rates soar. If you rarely stay at MR hotels and your points are about to expire you may not have the luxury of choice.

It depends on how your points are earned. If you earn them from everyday $ spent on hotel brand credit card, $1 = 1 Marriott point = 3 HH points.

I could pretty much always get better value for the HH points earned thru credit card spent. But I think I get better room upgrade as a Marriott plat than as a HH Diamond.